Philippines
and Japan over China
by Patricia Piramide
China as a
rising power is seeking and making its way to be at par with today’s considered
hegemon, United States of America. But, unfortunately, China’s considered
manner of reaching the top is mostly through aggression. Now, China is making
an issue about their territorial claims that have already affected its
relationship with other countries, such as Philippines and Japan.
Japan and China
has its conflict due to their competing claims of the eight uninhabited islands
and rocks known as Senkaku islands in Japan and Diaoyu islands in China. The
islands have a total of 7 sq km in area and lie north-east of Taiwan, east of
the Chinese mainland and south-west of Japan's southern-most prefecture,
Okinawa.
Japan based its
claim of the islands to that of January 14, 1895 when Japan erected a
sovereignty marker and formally incorporated the islands into Japanese
territory. And that prior to the establishment of the sovereignty marker, Japan
says it surveyed the islands for 10 years in the 19th Century and determined
that they were uninhabited.
On the other
hand, China and based its claim when the said islands have been part of its
territory since ancient times, serving as important fishing grounds
administered by the province of Taiwan.
These eight
inhabited islands and rocks: Senkaku islands as known in Japan and Diaoyu
islands as in China matter because they are close to important shipping lanes,
offer rich fishing grounds and lie near potential oil and gas reserves. Up to
now, the territorial dispute between China and Japan is still unsettled.
Another
unsettled conflict of China with that of another country, the Philippines,
which also involves territorial dispute, is the claim of Spratlys or the South
China Sea as known for China and West Philippine Sea for the Philippines.
China claims by
far the largest portion of territory - an area defined by the "nine-dash
line" which stretches hundreds of miles south and east from its most
southerly province of Hainan. China also uses historical accounts to legalize
their claim and to which they believe that its right to the area goes back
centuries to when the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as
integral parts of the Chinese nation, and in 1947 it issued a map detailing its
claims.
Philippines
invokes its geographical proximity based on UNCLOS 200 nautical mile Exclusive
Economic Zone to the Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of
the grouping.
Some of the
reasons why there are a lot of claimants of Spratly islands are due to its rich
reserves of natural resources: hydrocarbons, abundance of marine resources such
as fish. Also, due to commercial shipping purposes.
Now, Japan and
the Philippines teamed up against China during a regional security forum most
probably because both Japan and the Philippines are undergoing territorial
disputes with China. With their cooperation now, four sources with knowledge of
the matter told Reuters, a news agency company, that Japan was looking to offer
three Beechcraft TC-90 King Air planes that could be fitted with basic surface
and air surveillance radar.
Japan wants to
give planes to the Philippines that Manila could use for patrols in the South
China Sea, sources said, a move that would deepen Tokyo's security ties with
the Southeast Asian nation most at odds with Beijing over the disputed
waterway. Actually, Tokyo has no claims in the waterway, but is worried
Beijing's new islands will extend Chinese military reach into sea lanes through
which much of Japan's ship-borne trade passes.
To resolve these
issues through peace talks and/or bilateral agreements should have been much
better if only the Chinese government could have been more cooperative and
open-minded in addressing and equally compensating each and everyone’s interests
for the common good of all the parties concerned.
Word Count – 643
